loft

1 of 2

noun

1
: an upper room or floor : attic
2
a
: a gallery in a church or hall
b
: one of the upper floors of a warehouse or business building especially when not partitioned
living in a converted loft
c
3
a
: the backward slant of the face of a golf-club head
b
: the act of lofting
4
: the thickness of a fabric or insulating material (such as goose down)
loftlike adjective

loft

2 of 2

verb

lofted; lofting; lofts

transitive verb

1
: to place, house, or store in a loft
2
: to propel through the air or into space
lofted a long hit to center
instruments lofted by a powerful rocket
3
: to lay out a full-sized working drawing of the lines and contours of (such as a ship's hull)

intransitive verb

1
: to propel a ball high into the air
2
: to rise high

Example Sentences

Noun The kids' bedroom has a loft. He rents a converted loft. Verb He lofted a home run into the stands. The explosion lofted dust high into the air.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The Walters Group - Realty One Group Nest This loft features a tulip mural. John R. Ellement, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Apr. 2023 The Edgewood has a bedroom, loft and terrace on the third floor. Benjamin C Tankersley, Washington Post, 26 Apr. 2023 In due course, Mr. Gordon and Ms. Setterfield moved into a loft in the same Lower Broadway building as Ms. Brown, Lucinda Childs and Douglas Dunn. Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2023 Nima Momeni, the man accused of fatally stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee in downtown San Francisco, was cited on suspicion of battering a woman at his Emeryville loft last summer, records show. Matthias Gafni, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Apr. 2023 The entire apartment, a converted loft in an unprepossessing building on lower Broadway, is a testament to Hoffman’s deft hand with color, command of classical forms, and confidence in her aesthetic vision—attributes not often seen in a designer so young. Catherine Hong, ELLE Decor, 20 Apr. 2023 Upstairs, the sleeping loft feels restful and safe, thanks to the warm color scheme, and the warm textures of the birch plywood closet doors. Kimberley Mok, Treehugger, 17 Apr. 2023 The two-story loft, which 36-year-old Knowles purchased at age 19, was featured on the cover of Apartamento Magazine‘s 30th issue late last year. Evan Nicole Brown, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Apr. 2023 Arriving at an artist’s loft in Chinatown on Thursday night, I was first greeted by an elevator operator who quietly ushered me in and up to the third floor. Maria Geyman, Vogue, 24 Mar. 2023
Verb
Humanity currently lofts roughly 500 tons of cargo to space every year, says Casey Handmer, a software engineer who used to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Byadam Mann, science.org, 20 Apr. 2023 Earlier this year SpaceX began lofting a new, larger type of Starlink satellite, a prelude to even bulkier 2,000-kilogram versions that will depend on Starship for launch. Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 20 Apr. 2023 Similar to past missions, the crew for the flight—NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev—earlier boarded a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that the company lofted to orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket. Micah Maidenberg, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2023 Diodati lofted a 1-2 pitch to left and Nishida, who opened the bottom of the ninth with a single to left, scored easily. oregonlive, 17 Feb. 2023 Tear gas hung over the end point of the Paris march, Place de la Nation, where a huge black cloud lofted high above the trees after radicals set two fuel cans afire outside a building renovation site, police said. Alex Turnbull, ajc, 1 May 2023 Defining moment: On the deciding goal, Gil froze the defense with a couple feints in the penalty area near the end line, then lofted a cross for Romney. Frank Dell'apa, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Apr. 2023 With a maximum of 16.7 million pounds of thrust in its first stage, Starship can loft some 110 tons to low Earth orbit. Rob Pegoraro, PCMAG, 20 Apr. 2023 Santiago Moreno lined up from outside of the 18-yard box and lofted a ball in front of the mouth of the goal. Bill Oram, oregonlive, 17 Apr. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'loft.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Old English, air, sky, from Old Norse lopt; akin to Old High German luft air

First Known Use

Noun

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1518, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of loft was in the 13th century

Dictionary Entries Near loft

Cite this Entry

“Loft.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loft. Accessed 31 May. 2023.

Kids Definition

loft

1 of 2 noun
1
: an upper room or floor : attic
2
a
: a gallery in a church or hall
organ loft
b
: an upper floor of a warehouse or business building when not partitioned
c
3
: the backward slant of the face of a golf-club head

loft

2 of 2 verb
1
: to place, house, or store in a loft
2
: to strike or throw a ball so that it rises high in the air
lofted a high fly to center field

More from Merriam-Webster on loft

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